ETHICAL DECISION-MAKING GUIDELINES:

I will provide an example of an “A” worthy response to the questions/cases that are going to be asked. I will also provide what my professor is looking for.

The question for every case is: What should you do or say? To earn an A, you must correctly identify the ethical dilemma involved in the case. For each case, first produce an answer that is good, but not the best and explain why. Finally, produce the best answer and justify why it is best.

An “A” answer demonstrates you understand ethical values, your professional obligations, the people (stakeholders) involved (including yourself), and the various consequences that follow from one course of action versus another. An “A” answer is clear, articulate, utilizes critical reasoning, as well as experience of the business world.

ETHICAL DECISION-MAKING GUIDELINES:

Review the relevant facts and information

Consider who may be affected and how (consequences)

Determine your legal and professional responsibilities

Determine the ethical issues involved (including different principles)

Weigh your options

Decide what a reasonable/ethical person would do and consider how your decision and its justification would appear if known by the public.

Practice Case 1: What Should You Recommend?

After graduation, you obtain a job as a sales representative with a large advertising agency that negotiates media campaigns for corporate clients. Sales representatives travel to assigned markets and negotiate advertising opportunities with television sales managers. Sales representatives are assigned partners who provide moral support. Your region is Arizona, Nevada, and Utah. Claire, who has been the sales representative for California for about a year, is your partner. The two of you contact each other once a week for updates. On a Monday evening, a distraught Claire calls you for advice. Earlier in the day, she met with KXYZ-TV’s new sales manager to negotiate media placement advertisements for Cadillac and Best Buy. The total market dollar allocation for these two companies in the San Francisco market is $7 million. KXYZ-TV historically has received 20% of the business. Claire informs you that while meeting with KXYZ-TV’s new sales manager in his office, he made unwanted sexual advances toward her, grabbed her buttocks, and asked her to see him later that night for a drink and a visit to a hotel. Claire was shocked and was able to quickly leave the building; she stated she would return the next day to finish the sale. “It was way over the line,” Claire tells you. “I know our clients want to advertise on KXYZ-TV, but I don’t feel comfortable dealing with him.” You note that if she delayed the visit for a week, you could join her and do the sales call together. Claire rejects your offer and insists on handling this herself. Nonetheless, she seeks your advice on what she should do next.

What Should You Recommend?

Return, close the deal, and say nothing about the sexual harassment; Return, close the deal, and report the sexual harassment to her supervisor and/or the perpetrator’s supervisor; Don’t return and report the sexual harassment incident to both supervisors; Something else (and if so, what?). Consider factual issues, ethical values, and consequences. Justify your answer as opposed to one other serious possibility.

One Sample “A” response (25/25 points):

My first thought was to offer the following advice to Claire: “Return tomorrow as you said you would, be straight forward, professional, polite but firm, and finish the ad deal with this new manager of the TV station who harassed you yesterday. Let him know in no uncertain terms that you are there to complete the business transaction only. In this manner, you are making it absolutely clear you will not put up with sexual harassment. If he cooperates (and he should), then you close the deal, and do not report anything to your boss or his, and the ‘case is closed’ as they say: Everyone wins. We get the deal, he doesn’t get reported, and no one is the wiser. Maybe even post something online about him afterward, if you want to.” Although this initially seemed to me like solid advice, I realized upon reflection it isn’t ethically correct and is not the best advice to give to Claire.

The best solution requires we first understand sexual harassment. If someone is the object of repeated crude sexual jokes or is repeatedly asked out on dates—after she/he has explicitly said no thank you—that constitutes sexual harassment. (It is not sexual harassment if someone tells one sexual joke or asks you out one time, nor is it sexual harassment if you never tell the offending person to stop asking you out or telling sex jokes.) In such cases, once it is made clear that the jokes, requests for dates, or leering are unwelcome, and they continue, harassment has occurred. If this were the case with Claire, my initial advice would have been the best advice. However, in this case, the new manager has already crossed the line to physical contact (grabbing you or pinning you against a wall or kissing), so he is not in need of a “I don’t find that funny” remark in response to a crude sex joke. He has already sexually harassed Claire so her telling him to stop is already too late. I am of course assuming Claire is telling me the truth about being groped.

So, I will advise Claire to write a report in a carefully composed email. Her report should be written (better than a phone call in such cases) and cc’d (the original email copied and sent) to at least one executive above the manager in each company (Claire’s and the harasser’s). The letter does not need to be inflammatory, I will advise Claire. It can simply state that you cannot finish the ad deal as planned with the new TV manager—and give his full name and position title here, plus the date on which the sexual harassment occurred—due to what transpired: he crossed the line by not only asking me out, but actually groping me and grabbing my buttocks. You should state in your letter you will finish the ad deal with another representative from the company, but you simply cannot be silent and let the incident pass, or even deal with him again. That should be sufficient. Claire will have done the right thing, and Claire’s own boss should see the situation for what it is and take the appropriate next steps. Claire must remember, however, that the sooner she reports a sexual harassment case such as this one, the better, and the more details she can include in her email (including possible witnesses, even people outside the office where it occurred) the better.